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Catwalk models

Paris Fashion Week began with a thud. It was the sound of the fashion industry's bigwigs landing in a heap on the floor. Quelle horreur!

This disastrous start, a result of some flimsy Perspex benches that cracked beneath the collective weight of those watching the Balenciaga show, hung over the eight-day-long event like a pongy pair of Louboutins.

Shock waves, a result of Carine Roitfeld's elegant fall from grace, bounced around the city for days.

From fashion editors, to assistants, to a taxi driver who drove the wrong way up a one-way street in order to stop and discuss the hiccup, most could think about little else.

By the end of day two, a precedent had been set: this was a fashion week in which the clothes - on catwalks and in salons throughout the city - would only play a supporting role.

Along with lengthy debates which sought to decipher whether Carine's bottom had hit the floor - or, as some suggested, only skimmed it - the chat among those on the front-row was not focused around hem-heights but on the speculation that Marc Jacobs was in the frame to take John Galliano's previous role as creative director of Christian Dior.

Mutterings in taxi queues did not concern next season's palette but Kanye West and whether his first foray into fashion - unveiled on Saturday night - had really been as bad as most hoped it would be.

While Paris has form when it comes to creating clothes that make us want to sing their designers' praises from the rooftops of Rue Saint-Honoré, that savoir-faire seemed to be lacking from this week's proceedings.

Of course, this isn't to say that the collections on offer have not been interesting or, in fact, beautifully formed but rather that they quietly delivered in precisely the way we expected them to.

At Celine, where Phoebe Philo played with proportions to create billowing ankle-length trousers and and pelmet-trimmed cocktail jackets, there was a feeling of business as usual. Philo is a safe bet when it comes to creating beautiful clothes that delight. This season, like every other since she began designing for the house, proved to be no exception for the north London-born designer. Other highlights came from Christian Lemaire whose first collection for Hermès was a lesson in understated elegance. And from Stefano Pilati whose exquisite jewel-coloured garments for Yves Saint Laurent stopped tongues from wagging - for a few minutes, at least.

Elsewhere designers played it safe. In her first season as head designer at Chloe, ex-Pringle designer Clare Waight Keller showed a considered offering which while pretty, did little to push the brand in a new direction. For Christian Dior, acting creative director Bill Gaytten perfectly echoed the house's iconic heritage but sadly, refrained from carving out his own place within it.

While this was a week in which Paris served up a wealth of dressing opportunities for next spring, the jaw-dropping moments - Balenciaga benches aside - were notably absent.

"It's funny to think that Paris was once the city that blew our socks off," said one seasoned fashion circuit member as she took her seat at Yves Saint Laurent. "Nowadays, London well and truly owns that title."